A New Family Member
by Litta
Summary: A young girl wakes up, unaware that she has been changed into a vampire, but forced to deal with the changes. Set right after Breaking Dawn. Oneshot.


Where was I? When I thought back, all I could remember was pain. Intense pain. Excruciating pain. Pain I never thought I would be able to live through. Yet here I was, in one piece. Or at least I felt like I was in one piece. I tried to remember what happened before the pain.

Flashes of memory passed through my mind. First I saw a man, talking to me in the forest. Next I was running away from the man. Then I was on the ground, and pain blocked out any another memories. Before the man, I remembered living alone in a city. I had no family, and no friends. My life was boring, but I'd give anything to go back to it.

I decided to sit up and look around, to try and figure out where I was. The lights above me told me I wasn't in the forest anymore. I could hear people talking farther away, probably in another room, but I couldn't tell what they were saying. As I sat up, a firm hand pushed me back down.

"Take it easy," the hand's owner told me.

I looked up into the most beautiful face I'd ever seen. The man had gold eyes, pale skin, and blonde hair. His features were perfect. His voice was even beautiful, soothing and hypnotizing. If he wasn't a model, he should be. But the more I studied his face, the more it looked familiar. I realized it was because he reminded me of the man from the forest. Both of them had pale skin, perfect features, and were indescribably beautiful. The only difference was the man from the forest had red eyes, almost black, while this man's eyes were gold. I screamed, thinking they were connected with each other, and not wanting whatever caused the pain to happen again.

"Calm down, I'm not going to hurt you," he told me.

Before I realized it, I had jumped off the table and backed into the corner of the room. I was shocked by how quickly I'd moved. As I crouched there, I noticed the other young man standing in the room. He too had pale skin, gold eyes, and model looks. He had brown hair instead of blonde. I wondered if the three were some sort of family.

"Please, talk to us, we only want to help," the man told me again.

"Leave me alone!" I shouted. I gasped as I heard my voice, not recognizing it. It was somehow smoothing, more velvety, and more like theirs.

"You don't remember me," the younger one said, suddenly speaking, "but I'm the one who found you in the forest and brought you here, my brother and I, that is."

"I don't care, just let me go."

As I spoke again, I was struck this time by an ache in my throat, a sudden thirstiness. I looked around for a sink to get some water from, but saw none. All I saw was the table I'd been laying on, a few cabinets, a countertop, a mirror, and the two men. Ignoring my surroundings, my thoughts returned to my thirst. As they hadn't attacked me yet, I decided it couldn't hurt to ask for a glass of water.

"Can I get something to drink?" Both men smiled slightly. The younger answered me.

"A glass of water won't cure your thirst." I cocked my head slightly, surprised at his word choice. It was like he knew what I'd been thinking, rather than simply responding to my question.

"Miss, why don't you take a look into the mirror," the man said. He gestured towards the wall and stepped back from me. I decided to do as he asked, curious. Perhaps I had some bandage on my head or a large gash he wanted me to see. Maybe he thought that would prove they didn't want to hurt me, because they'd already helped me. As I stepped in front of the mirror, I gasped. I jumped back, knocking a few things off the counter behind me.

My face had changed. I still had some of the same facial features, but it was like they'd been refined and perfected. My eyes were bright red, and my skin just as pale as theirs. Thoughts began racing through my head faster than I could process them. Confusion crippled my thinking, and I just sank to the floor to wait for my brain to slow down.

"We can answer your questions if you'll let us," the younger one told me, coming a few steps closer.

I made no move to keep him away, finally accepting that they meant me no harm. I noticed the young man nod to the other, and both walked over towards me. The man held out his hand to me, offering to help me up off the ground. I accepted his hand, and stood up amazed at the little effort it took, on both our parts. It was as if I was suddenly stronger than before. Again, I noticed the younger one smile.

The man started to say something, but he was cut off as a young woman walked in. She had the same gold eyes, pale skin, and perfect features. She also had short, brown hair. I was beginning to wonder how we all looked alike.

"How is she?" the young woman asked.

"She'll be fine, Alice. I was just about to explain what we are to her."

"Okay. I'll let everyone know." And then she was gone. I turned now to the man, who stood on my right. I wondered what he would explain, and "what" they all were.

"My name is Carlisle Cullen, and this is my son, Edward," he said. "As you may have noticed, all of us share similar features, yourself included." He paused, appearing to search for words. I took the moment to ask a question.

"You told Alice that you were going to explain to me 'what' you are. What did you mean by that?"

"I meant that we are not human. And you now are no longer human."

"If we're not human," I said slowly, "then what are we?"

"Vampires."

"No. Vampires don't exist. They're just stuff from fairy tales and nightmares. No. It's not possible."

"I assure you it's very possible."

"Why don't I explain how you came here," Edward suggested. I nodded, curious as to what happened to me. "As I said, my brother, Emmett, and I, were out hunting when we heard you scream. We found you lying on the ground screaming in pain. You'd been bitten by a vampire, but apparently he didn't want to be found by us, so he left you before he could finish killing you. It was difficult for us to resist the urge, but we brought you back here to see if Carlisle could do anything for you. Unfortunately, there wasn't. That was two days ago. Now you're a vampire, like the rest of us."

"No!"

I pushed past the two of them and ran through the door. I ran into a room full of people who also looked the same. I noticed Alice, who sat next to a blonde man, a blonde woman sitting next to a brunette young man, and two brunette women, one of which was holding a small girl. I stopped, unsure of what to do next. I screamed in my head, wishing it all away but somehow knowing it was all true. Alice came towards me first, followed by the rest of them, and behind me came Carlisle and Edward. I didn't want to be a vampire. I wanted to go back to my boring life with no one, sitting behind a desk filing papers. Anything was better than being a monster.

"We're not monsters," Alice said. I looked at her, shocked. Again, it was like she'd heard my thoughts and answered them. I knew I hadn't said anything out loud.

"Actually, I'm guessing we can all hear your thoughts," she told me. I looked around the room and everyone nodded at me. I stepped back, completely unable to absorb everything I'd been told. First I was a vampire, in a household of vampires, and now I was projecting my thoughts for everyone to hear.

"Maybe if you stopped shouting in your head we wouldn't all hear you," Edward told me from behind. Unaware of how close he'd been behind me, I jumped at the sound of his voice. But to keep myself from further embarrassing myself, I tried to calm myself and slow my thinking.

"Don't worry," the brunette man next to the blonde girl said, "it took me some time to adjust to the transition too. But you'll get used to it. I'm Emmett, and this is Rosalie, Jasper, Alice, Esme, Bella, and Renesmee. You've already met Carlisle and Edward." I looked at each person as he said their name. "I'm guessing you have a special ability like Edward, only you can project your thoughts instead of reading others. Pretty cool if you ask me." I barely registered what Emmett was say. The little girl, Renesmee, seemed to be reaching towards me, despite Bella's best efforts to hold on to her. But I smelled her, as strange as that sounds to me, and I was reminded forcefully of my aching throat and unquenched thirst.

"NO!" Edward shouted, disrupting the quiet atmosphere. He placed himself between me and Renesmee, protecting her. I seemed to lose control of myself as I launched myself towards the child. My mind split in two as part of it screamed at me, asking me what I was doing, while the other half was driven by pure thirst. I didn't know how the child was a vampire and still had blood, but that was of little importance at the moment. All that mattered was my thirst.

Only a few seconds passed between Edward's shout and all my thoughts, but in that time the women surrounded the baby and Emmett and Jasper grabbed me and dragged me outside. I was still focused on Renesmee, but wondered at my own strength. Once outside, with the door closed behind me and the smell gone, I fully came back to myself. I was ashamed at what I almost did: attack a member of the family who helped me when I was hurt. Though I felt like crying, no tears came. I assumed that was another trait of being a vampire.

"Don't worry, Edward and Bella will understand," Jasper told me. Soon Alice, Carlisle, and Esme came outside, while Emmett went back in to Rosalie.

"Why did I do that?"

"You're a newborn vampire," Carlisle said, "and your instincts are raw. You have little self control right now, so you're driven by your thirst. I have discussed it with the others, and you are welcome to join our family. But you must know that we live differently from other vampires. We choose to kill animals rather than humans to quench our thirst. We all live with humans, so we've all developed a great amount of self control. If you stay, you must agree to live by our lifestyle."

"Alice and I agreed to offer to help you learn to control yourself around humans," Jasper said.

"And Renesmee is half human, half vampire," Alice told me. "Bella had her while she was still human, though to save Bella's life Edward had to change her. Don't worry," she told me, as my face must have showed my shock. "Bella wanted to be changed. I was just explaining that she still has blood in her, so you smelled her blood and that's why you reacted like that. Jasper and I will help you control yourself, if you decide to stay."

"I don't think I could kill another person, even if I am a vampire," I told them all after a minute. "I wouldn't even know how to . . ." I searched for the right word.

"Hunt?" Carlisle offered. I nodded.

"Yes, I wouldn't know how to hunt. So if you can teach me, I'm willing to learn to live by your lifestyle."

"Welcome to the family!" Alice said and hugged me. "Oh, what's your name?"

"Serena Pershing."

"Serena Cullen, now," Alice corrected with a smile. I smiled and hugged her back, thankful to finally have a family, though still unsure about my future as a vampire. I listened as Alice began explaining my new life to me.


End file.
